Dr. Who: Planet of the Dead / July 28th

[Super-VHS]

From BD.com:

BBC Home Entertainment in conjunction with Warner Home Video have announced that they will bring 'Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead' to Blu-ray on July 28th, day-and-date with the DVD release. Video will be presented on a BD-50 in 1080p VC-1 accompanied by a 2.0 Dolby Digital soundtrack.

"Planet of the Dead" is the first Doctor Who shot entirely in high definition. The sole extra is "Doctor Who: Confidential" which is a 60-min behind-the-scenes featurette.

[Super-VHS]

***UPDATE***



Source: blu-ray.com

[eastx]

Is it a single episode or what? You and your failure to resize images appropriately. :P

[Philnerd]

Very cool, the wife loves this show (has all 4 seasons on DVD). I enjoy Dr. Who quite a bit as well, this'll probably be a release day purchase for us.

Originally Posted by eastx

Is it a single episode or what?

They're not doing another season with David Tennant, but will be doing a few movie length specials with him. I believe they'll be picking up the regular season schedule after the specials are done (not sure how many/often) and they've already cast and introduced the actor playing the next Doctor.

[WaveyDavey]

Originally Posted by Philnerd

They're not doing another season with David Tennant, but will be doing a few movie length specials with him. I believe they'll be picking up the regular season schedule after the specials are done (not sure how many/often) and they've already cast and introduced the actor playing the next Doctor.

There are 4 scheduled for this year, this was the 1st, shown over Easter. The next episode is "Waters of Mars" hasn't yet been scheduled. I guess the UK's later summer bank holiday (Aug 31) would be a likely spot and maybe the other two over Xmas

[Casca]

This is an odd one. The BBC Cardiff Dr Who production team have long asserted that Dr Who wouldn't be an HD show. It has never been shot or transmitted in HD in the UK (unlike Torchwood) and for very specific reasons - the FX are not produced at a resolution that makes HD worthwhile. It's just not in the budget. One can only assume, therefore that this disc will be an upscaled anomaly no better than your TV would do itself! Unless Warners can prove otherwise .

[Super-VHS]

This is the first Dr. Who produced entirely in high definition.

Ever since taking their HD channel out of the testing phase, the BBC has been moving pretty fast on upgrading all of their material to HD. They hope (or so I've read / heard) to have nearly all of their programing finished in 1080i (or better) by 2010.

[waterman981]

July 28th is becoming a VERY expensive day....

[Lacrobat]

Originally Posted by Philnerd

They're not doing another season with David Tennant, but will be doing a few movie length specials with him.

Planet of the Dead was 60 minutes long. It's likely that the three other specials will be of similar length.

However, the BBC have recently confirmed plans for a Doctor Who movie (i.e. a cinema move, not a TV offering like the 1996 Paul McGann story). Speculation is that David Tennant and Billie Piper will star.

Originally Posted by Casca

One can only assume, therefore that this disc will be an upscaled anomaly no better than your TV would do itself!

Planet of the Dead was shot entirely in HD, partly as a result of the laxer schedule for 2009's run of 4 1-hour specials rather than 13 50 minute episodes. Whether Matt Smith's first season will be in HD, that is hard to say.

[Philnerd]

Originally Posted by Lacrobat

Planet of the Dead was 60 minutes long. It's likely that the three other specials will be of similar length.

I was hoping they'd be in the 90-120 minute range. So basically 2009 is essentially a... 4 episode season? Bummer.

[IanC]

Bumping this up to say that i got the UK release of this today and it has 5.1 audio! Not just that, its only DTS HD Master Audio to boot! Great one BBC

[The_Doctor]

Originally Posted by IanC

Bumping this up to say that i got the UK release of this today and it has 5.1 audio! Not just that, its only DTS HD Master Audio to boot! Great one BBC

why the hell is the US version Dolby 2.0? That is what they used to do for the shows released before a box set at the end of the season. Or did they copy the the DVD specs?


I think the 11th Doctor's shows will all be in HD as well, supposedly they redesigned the TARDIS console room to be HD friendlier.

[IanC]

The UK release was listed with a Dolby Digital 2.0 track originally, it surprised a lot of people elsewhere.